Conventional print shops are organized in a manner that is functionally independent of the print jobs, the print job mix, and the total volume of print jobs passing through the system. Most commonly, equipment that is somewhat related is grouped together on a factory floor. This causes all printing equipment to be grouped in a single locale and for example, all finishing equipment to be grouped in a separate locale. In other words, conventional print shops typically organize resources into separate departments, each department corresponding to a particular process that is performed in completing a print job.
When a print job arrives at a conventional print shop, the print job sequentially passes through each department. Once the print job is completely processed by a first department, the print job is placed in queue for the next department. The queue is sometimes in the form of a temporary storage facility. This process continues until the print job makes its way through each department and is completed.
There are a number of limitations with conventional print shops. For example, the equipment employed in conventional print shops is not well interfaced with internal computer systems. In addition, the equipment is often physically organized in an inefficient arrangement. Typical arrangements employ machines that require operators to load/unload jobs, monitor job progress, pass jobs on to a next station, and commence a next job. In between each of the steps, each job is commonly stored in a storage area awaiting the next step of the job. As a result, excess inventories may buildup and add to the costs of the job. A physical job card is used to track progress of a job. The job card specifies the steps needed to be completed to finish the job. The job card also specifies the steps already completed, and the order in which steps are to be performed. The data regarding job completion is manually added to the job card, or sometimes is only remembered by the operators working on the job. The lack of real time information concerning the contemporaneous state of the machines and the jobs leads to less efficient plant utilization, and lower productivity. Further, large jobs cannot easily be split into more efficient smaller job lots due to the difficulty in tracking the smaller job lots.